1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for generating specs, and more particularly to an automated system and method for defining, creating, presenting, completing and processing user-defined generic specs.
2. Related Art
The present invention is directed toward specs. Typically, specs are used by a first party to fully specify requirements (i.e. products and/or services) that are to be provided by a second party. This enables the second party, not only to provide the precise requirements as requested by the first party, but also to provide the first party with an accurate price quotation for the request.
Specs are commonly used for example, in industry. One such example is the printing industry, where many options are available for each product offered by suppliers. Customers typically complete a spec, in one form or another, to receive a price quotation from a supplier.
Conventionally, designing and creating specs is a manual process performed by industry experts, often in an ad-hoc or improvised manner. For example, sales personnel are generally quite knowledgeable about the products they sell. Thus, when a sales representative takes an order from a customer, they generally know what questions to ask, what options to offer, and what options not to offer due to incompatibilities. This ad-hoc process often becomes an iterative process, when it is often determined at a later date, that a supplier needs additional details and/or clarifications before a price quotation can be provided.
In order to avoid these problems, a more systematic approach has been taken. Pre-defined specs are often created by suppliers. These pre-defined specs are generally in the form of questionnaires that are completed by customers, sometimes with the assistance of sales reps. These questionnaires ideally include all possible options available for each product.
For example, in the printing industry, a separate questionnaire or spec is typically required for each product. Thus, if a customer desires a price quotation for an annual report, for example, the customer completes the particular pre-defined spec specifically designed for annual reports. The pre-defined spec ideally guides the customer so that all of the details necessary for each option selected are fully specified.
This conventional process is problematic on many levels. One problem is that the printing industry, like many industries, is capable of providing thousands of products to customers. Therefore, creating and maintaining separate specs for each product can be extremely time-consuming and can be prohibitively expensive.
Another problem with this conventional method is related to the required maintenance of pre-defined specs. Specs often need to be changed due to the dynamic nature of most businesses. Routine changes to business processes can often affect one or more pre-defined specs. For example, new products or processes can be introduced and/or existing products or processes can be discontinued or modified. Even worse, changing a single vendor could affect a multitude of pre-defined specs. For instance, suppose a print supplier changes the vendor that provides, for example, ink or paper. This seemingly minor change could require a modification to thousands of specs across the board.
Another problem with conventional specs from a customer""s perspective, is that each company typically maintains their own proprietary specs. Thus, when customers want to shop around and receive price quotations from multiple suppliers, they typically have to complete different and separate specs for each supplier, even though the exact same product is being requested.
Accordingly, the present invention is directed toward an automated system and method for defining, creating, presenting, completing and processing user-defined generic specs.
It should be noted that type of specs used in industry, as described above, are used in the examples herein to aid in the description of the concepts presented. It should be kept in mind however, that a xe2x80x9cgenericxe2x80x9d spec can deal with any subject matter and is not restricted to the industry type of specs discussed in the examples below.
A feature of the present invention is that a centralized data structure referred to as a domain tree is used to generate all of the specs for a particular industry or domain. In this fashion, when changes are made to the domain tree, all of the specs created therefrom are automatically updated to reflect the changes.
Another feature of the present invention is that the specs generated therefrom can be shared among multiple suppliers. Therefore, a customer need only complete a single spec for each requirement requested. The single completed spec is then automatically transformed into requests for price quotations that are formatted and customized, if necessary, to conform to the requirements of each supplier.
An advantage of the present invention is that customers can complete specs without assistance from industry experts. Specs are completed on-line, from anywhere around the world; the only requirement being that the customer has access to the Internet.
A typical implementation of the present invention comprises a spec server and a data base management system. The spec server comprises at least the following components: a content editor, a page builder, a content reader, a rule processor, a template generator and a compatibility engine.
An industry expert creates a data structure referred to as a xe2x80x9cdomain tree.xe2x80x9d The domain tree comprises a wealth of information associated with a particular domain. A domain is the embodiment of knowledge regarding a particular subject area. Each domain tree includes questions, options and rules pertaining to a category of xe2x80x9cproductsxe2x80x9d provided by suppliers within the domain. Also included in the domain tree are instructions related to the presentation of the specs generated from the domain tree. The content editor is used to create, modify and maintain domain trees.
Once a domain tree is constructed, the industry expert uses the content editor to define a plurality of components. Components are constructed by using the content editor to select a subset of the domain tree associated with each component. This subset is referred to herein as a xe2x80x9ccomponent treexe2x80x9d.
A spec template is created for each product spec. The industry expert creates a spec template by defining one or more components comprising the spec. In addition, the industry expert defines components as being either optional or required. Optional components can be selectively included in a product spec by the user completing the spec. Required components are automatically included in the product spec. In addition, the industry expert can define a maximum number of times that any component can appear within a particular spec.
An advantage of the present invention is that if changes are made to the domain tree, all of the specs created therefrom are automatically updated to reflect the changes.
Users access the spec server via a computer network, preferably the Internet. The page builder of the present invention dynamically builds custom pages that are presented on a web browser to the user. The content of the pages depends on previous answers and selections from the user. A rule processor is used to interpret rules defined by the industry expert. The rule processor is used to set flags that are used to turn on or turn off certain options displayed to the user while completing the specs.
After a spec is completed by the user, a compatibility engine compares the completed spec with other completed specs, such as specs completed by suppliers. In particular, using this example, suppliers complete specs in much the same manner as described above. The specs completed by suppliers however, describe the capabilities of the suppliers, rather than product requirements.
Thus, the compatibility engine typically compares a group of specs completed by suppliers (i.e. a group of supplier profiles), with a completed user spec and tests for compatibility. Once compatible suppliers are determined, a template generator uses additional rules supplied by the industry expert to generate requests for price quotations (RFQs). The RFQs. are then sent to the compatible suppliers.